


Coffee into Theorems

by BladeoftheNebula



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe
Genre: Character Death Fix, First Time, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, Romance, insecure!Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-13
Updated: 2012-09-03
Packaged: 2017-11-12 02:25:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/485655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BladeoftheNebula/pseuds/BladeoftheNebula
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Natasha actually smiles at Barnes and Barnes in return gets to call her ‘Nat’ without being killed in a scary and extremely painful way, Tony decides Barnes hasn’t just encroached on his territory, he’s fucking invaded and set up a new regime.</p><p>Or: In which Tony acquires a family, then a Steve and Bucky Barnes returns from the dead to ruin Tony’s life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing! Take that world!
> 
> Author's note: This thing was a monster, and although I'm at the point where I never want to see it again, I hope other people get to enjoy it. Its totally the longest fic I've ever managed to start and finish. I just want to apologise in advance, since the sex scene is the first I've written and I'm not really sure how I feel about how it turned out. 
> 
> EDIT: I now have a Beta! The lovely Teyke, who is clearly a language savant ;)
> 
> Crossposted to my LJ: http://bladeofnebula.livejournal.com/

Despite saving the world and defeating Loki, the Avengers aren’t instantly friends. It’s not exactly surprising. The circumstances weren’t really ripe for getting to be buds. Seriously, Tony doesn’t even get to properly meet Barton until they go for shawarma. In spite of this though, when they separate, he thinks they all feel the strings that tie them together, knows that it was Phil Coulson who tied them there, and wonders if they feel the same inevitability of coming together in the future that he does.

 

At first there’s only Tony and Bruce. The two of them hit it off on the helicarrier and it goes from there. While the tower is being rebuilt- and Tony knows he’s been infected by the team bug when he commissions five new suites along with his own- they stay at the house in Malibu. It’s great, as always, to have Pepper around, though now it’s even better because he has Bruce to be science buddies with too.  About a month into their new living situation Bruce has an incident, a minor incident mind, and puts Tony through his workshop window.  It’s too much for Pepper. It’s not really the incident that does it of course. It's simply the catalyst that triggers all the feelings she had had from when he’d fought with the Avengers, where she had to watch the whole Tony flying a missile into a portal and then fall from the sky like he was dead thing. Well that’s what she tells Tony anyway. She breaks it off with him, tears in her eyes. She tells him she’s sorry, and that she thought she, “Could deal with you being in danger all the time, but I can’t Tony, I just can’t.” She leaves him with a kiss on his forehead and her perfume lingering on his skin, though with the promise that she will stay on as his CEO and will always be his best friend. She still loves him. She just can’t be the one who sits at home wondering if this will be the time he doesn’t come back.

 

Bruce, of course, feels guilty and tries to make for South America. But Tony stops him, tells him it was probably for the best. It would only have hurt them further down the line and he hated hurting Pepper. Bruce keeps an eye on him while he tries to drink himself into oblivion, and although it’s terrible for his liver, it's good for him and Bruce. They get closer over time, and Tony realises Bruce is the first friend he’s had that he hasn’t had to pay in some way or another. It’s still probably for the best when he finally gets a call telling him the tower is ready and he can leave Malibu and its memories behind.

 

It takes one month after the tower is completed for the other Avengers to move in. First is Clint.  Tony goes to the new SHIELD headquarters to give Fury a communications prototype he had requested (he’s not big on sharing tech with SHIELD really, but he thinks of Coulson, and supposes even Fury can’t do much damage with improved headsets) and manages to bump into him on his way out. And by ‘bump into him’, he means Barton drops out of the ceiling in front of him, causing Tony give an exclamation of surprise (“Christ Stark, I didn’t know you could scream like that,” Barton snickers as Tony rights himself from where he’d fallen against the wall). Barton looks different than he had during the battle. His face seems pale and pinched, and when he laughs at Tony, it doesn’t reach his eyes. Not in the sense that his amusement is forced but as if, Tony thinks, there was something weighing on him, not letting him really relax. Tony doesn’t want to pry; he’s learned that asking secret agents about their lives is a waste of time (Natasha: case in point). So instead he just asks how Barton has been, a nice, normal, innocuous statement. Barton looks at him for a moment as if unsure what he should say, but then mutters, “They haven’t found me a new handler.”

That’s what he says, but Tony can see the strain in his eyes and the tenseness of his body, and-

Oh. _Oh._

He’s surprised and he wonders if this was why Coulson was so vague about his cellist. If it was because he was talking about someone with a completely different sort of bow. Tony doesn’t ask though, doesn’t push, because for all his usual tactless brashness, he can still feel the rawness of the wound Pepper has left behind and he wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Instead he asks what Clint is doing now.

“Hanging around base. I don’t think they’re going to send me on missions till the shrinks decide I’m not still Loki’s puppet,” Barton says, his tone bitter.

And Tony doesn’t even really think about it, just comes out with, “You know Stark tower is all finished, and it’s pretty incredible if I do say so myself, which, hi , I’m me, so I totally do.”

Barton raises his eyebrow at him. “And?”

“Well, you know if you’re bored it has a media room and a range, so you could always come hang out there or you know, whatever. Bruce is there if you wanted someone to bother.”

Clint looks at him blankly for a moment, so much so that Tony feels like an idiot (not a common feeling), because why would Barton want to live in the Tower with him, why would any one want to, Pepper didn’t and it was a stupid idea, and he’d pretty much forced Bruce into it and—

“Ok.”

“What?”

“I said ok. It’s not like I’m doing anything around here.”

“Oh. Well. Yes, good. Do you want to go now? I’m going now. Not that you have to if you don’t want to, the offer is always open, but you know if you aren’t busy now then you can--”

“Fuck, yes, Stark, I’ll come now,” Clint says, slapping a hand over Tony’s mouth. “Let me just go sign off base.”

So Clint comes and hangs in the tower, and stays the night. And the next day trains in the gym. By the end of the week he has moved into his suite, which he’d found with no prompting from Tony, and set up what he is resolutely not calling a nest in the ceiling of the main common area. Which Tony dutifully ignores.

 

Natasha just turns up. Tony has no idea how it happens, only that he resurfaces one morning for coffee and finds her already in the kitchen making waffles. He makes a tactical decision to not ask.

 

Thor moves in when he comes to visit Jane and hears from Fury that ‘his new friends are ensconced in the mighty tower of Stark, and that he must journey to see them’. Since Odin is up and about again, and Jane lives on Midgard, Thor decides to stay for a while.

 

When it comes to Rogers, Tony is a little unsure how to play it. They get on better now than they did when they first met on the helicarrier, once Steve stopped seeing Tony as a selfish bastard and Tony stopped seeing Steve as a self-righteous jerk in red, white and blue. In the end, he calls Steve on the phone SHIELD gave him and leaves a message, simply saying, “Hey, Rogers, it’s Tony Stark. I wanted to let you know that the rest of the team has moved into the Stark Tower, and that when you’re finished gallivanting around on that bike of yours, you’re welcome to join us, if you want.” A week later, Steve Rogers shows up on the doorstep in his leather jacket and with a duffel bag on his shoulder.

He’s all politeness and, “Are you sure you want me here? Because I can stay at SHIELD if it is too much of a bother”, until Tony rolls his eyes and tells him to zip it before showing him to his suite and leaving him to his own devices.

 He is silently grateful that the team never asks why he had suites for them built into the new designs of the tower. He isn't really sure what answer he could give that wouldn’t make him sound like a lonely idiot.

 

xXxXxXx

 

Fury finally decides to make the Avengers official, sending them on missions and giving them intel. They save the city a few times, nothing too big, merely an occasional chance to stretch their wings. They click together in battle well enough, learning each other’s fighting styles, getting to know when to zig and when to zag. But at the tower, they don’t exactly fit together naturally. For all of Tony’s talk of not being separate person when he’s Ironman, there is still a difference between being comrades-in-arms during a battle, and being friends outside of it. Already, though, Tony has to admit, it feels…nice, to have the place filled with people. It’s not something he has had, not even when his parents were still around.

They spend time in pairs or alone at first, only really meeting up incidentally. Tony mostly spends time with Bruce, who comes to his workshop from time to time to chat or discuss experiments. Slowly over time the others start to spend more time together as a group. At first, it’s just eating dinner together when they manage to be in the kitchen at the same time, or occasionally watching TV on a night when they have nothing to do. Eventually this becomes a little more permanent, a little more planned. They start to eat dinner three to four times a week. Steve likes to cook, says he likes to be able to use a simple skill that’s still relevant now, though it takes him awhile to get the hang of the kitchen that looks like it should be one on board a spaceship (his words).

 

They tentatively start movie nights, or nights where they listen to music, to get Steve and Thor caught up on pop culture and Earth history. Tony knows all this goes on, thanks to JARVIS, but he never joins them. Tony doesn’t really feel comfortable enough to join, though both Clint and Bruce track him down every so often and tell him to come eat. He brushes them off good-naturedly and they leave him be. He’s got a reputation and, let’s be honest, a habit, of being the biggest man in the room, the snarky guy with the textbook narcissistic tendencies (thank you, Romanoff), but this situation is different. It’s always different when it matters.

 

It’s one thing to make a scene at a party filled with people who he’ll never see again, and have them decide he’s a jerk that they only want to be around because of his money. It’s a different thing entirely to have people in his house that he has to live with and fight alongside decide the same thing.  He’s content to be the man behind the expensive curtain letting them live in his tower. Sort of.

 

When he does see them, he rattles off his usual barrage of semi-insults and odd observations, and then he heads off, either to work, or out to the events Pepper makes him attend. He still skips most, but he can tell when one is really important. He wants to get back to normal with her so bad that he’s willing to make an effort to help out in a way he never managed when they were together. He’s better at apologising than changing after all, always has been.

 

He manages to wait in the wings until Steve decides that Tony playing the recluse in the workshop gets old, and starts coming downstairs of an evening to give Tony food and sit with him in the workshop. The first couple of times he just sits quietly, though Tony is hyper-aware of his presence, noticing every tick and movement. After the first time, Steve brings his sketchbook, and eventually Steve feels less like an intruder and more like a permanent fixture.  They start talking, and it gets easier. They still argue from time to time, and Tony thinks they always will, but it’s more amiable and it gets Tony riled up it the best way.

Steve only makes the mistake of trying to talk about Howard once.

They’re sitting in the lab one night after Tony has eaten the sandwich Steve brought for him. “Hey, Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“What was he like?”

“Who?”

“Your Dad. You know, after.”

That makes him still. “He was Howard, I don’t know, look him up.”

“But I want to know from a personal perspective, not just what the papers saw.”

Tony laughs, the sound sour on his tongue. “Trust me, Rogers, it’s all I saw too.”

Steve frowns. “Surely you don’t mean that.”

“I promise, I absolutely do.”

“But he was your dad, you must have-”

“Look, I’m only going to say this once ok? He was a work-o-holic who hardly ever had time for his family outside of the ‘expected’ public events. The only time we spent together was when he talked about Captain America, his buddy from the war.” He looks at Steve, who looks a little shocked, maybe at the idea Howard talked about him even after he was gone. Tony means to stop now, but he finds the words bubbling up anyway, because he hasn’t had the chance to say this to anyone since he saw that damn video. “I grew up thinking he didn’t love me, or even like me because he was so cold and distant. Then when I was dying, before the whole Loki thing, I found a video he left for me telling me I was his greatest creation. Like that makes it ok, all the years he ignored me. Would it have killed him to tell me when I was a kid, just once?“ He pauses to take a breath, and the next words come out a little softer, a bit gentler, because he doesn’t like how his outburst is making Steve look. “Whoever the man my father was when you knew him, he wasn’t that once you were gone.”

He stops then, feeling both bitter and embarrassed, though he manages to look at Steve, who now looks a little heartbroken. It makes Tony wish he had known his Dad before Steve went into the ice. Howard must have really been something if Captain America held him in such esteem. He expects denials from Steve, or platitudes, but instead Steve merely nods at him, and then changes the subject to a story about him growing up in Brooklyn. Neither of them bring up Howard again.

 

Steve eventually coaxes him out of the lab for movie night (by which he means Steve had looked all sad and told Tony he wasn’t going without him and wouldn’t it be horrible if Steve missed out on learning something important about this new world just because Tony wouldn’t- “Yes all right Rogers, I’m going ok? I’m going. For Christ’s sake just stop making that face!”). He expects comment from the others, but no one does anything other than greet him except for Bruce who budges up on the couch to make room for them. Watching a movie with Thor and Steve is hilarious. Thor manages to misunderstand half the things that go on and Steve blushes to the tips of his ears whenever anything remotely resembling a sexual reference happens on screen. Tony is just considering whether getting them all to watch Game of Thrones would be worth it (he’s sure Thor would love it, and that Steve would pass out from the amount of blood rushing to his face) when he realises that he is planning on doing this again. It doesn’t matter that he spends the whole movie getting hit in the back of the head with pieces of popcorn courtesy of Clint, or that when an incredibly stacked girl comes onto the screen, he swallows the unbelievably vulgar comment he was going to make in favour of not being killed and having his body shoved into the couch cushions by Natasha. For once he manages to relax with people who aren’t Pepper or Rhodey. It’s not like he is perfect, he’s still Tony Stark after all, so he still manages to make Steve roll his eyes and sigh at him, and Natasha utter a terrifying “Stark!” at him. Regardless, it’s as good as he’s had it in a long time.

 

It gets better, or worse depending on how you look at it, about two months down the track. Tony is down in his workshop, tinkering with the repulsors and trying to see if he can bump up the maximum power by another five percent, when Steve comes into the room. He doesn’t look up. Steve is here often enough that it’s no big deal, in fact the only reason he knows it’s Steve is because Dummy and Butterfingers roll up to him, chirping in delight. He rolls his eyes. No loyalty whatsoever. He continues his work until he notices that Steve is suddenly standing quite close to him. He looks at him from under his eyelashes, watching as Steve actually shuffles his feet. He looks up and finds Steve watching him nervously.

“You alright there, Cap?” he asks, wondering whether Steve is here to tell him that someone has managed to break yet another piece of his house. Seriously, he should just hire live-in contractors.

“No- I mean yes, I mean, I-” Steve snaps his mouth shut, looking frustrated.

Tony raises one eyebrow in a manner he hopes displays his curiosity appropriately. “You want to tell me what’s on your mind?”

Steve seems to steel himself, and then to Tony’s surprise says, “I was wondering if you wanted to get dinner with me.”

“Dinner?” Was that all? They ate together all the time. “Yeah, sure. What do you feel like?”

Steve seemed stunned by his answer. “I don’t mind, I’m open to anything really.”

“Well, what do the others want?”

“Others?”

“The rest of the team.”

“Team?”

Tony huffs in frustration. “Yes, Steve, team. Those people we live with and occasionally save the world with? I assume they all want to come too?”

Steve looks at him blankly, but then he seems to recover. “Oh, no, I didn’t mean- I was asking whether I could take you out.”

Tony opens his mouth to remind Steve that he already said yes, when he finally parses Steve’s meaning.

“Oh, you meant-”

“Uh huh,” Steve says as he tries to make himself as small as possible.

“With you?”

“Yeah.”

Tony looks at him, dumbfounded. He’d thought about it, of course he had. Steve was gorgeous, all toned muscle and broad shoulders, and a sweet smile that made Tony’s heart melt every time he managed to coax one out of him. But he’d never imagined that Steve would be interested…

“Yes!” he blurts, and he feels the blood rush to his cheeks. Way to play it cool, Stark. Steve beams and Tony feels light-headed.

“So tonight?”

“Tonight,” Tony agrees and Steve manages to somehow smile even wider.

“Well, I’ll swing by around seven. See you then.” Then Steve is gone and Tony is left in the workshop to wonder whether what just happened really happened.

“JARVIS?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Did Steve Rogers just ask me out on a date?”

“It would appear so, sir.”

Well, that was that.

 

Steve turns up outside the elevator at 7pm sharp, as Tony knew he would.  He’d made sure to get JARVIS to remind him to get ready. He hadn’t known what to go for dress wise, but then, he’d figured that as long as he was tidy and he looked good (that went without saying) it wouldn’t be a problem.

All right. He’d been dithering in his room when Clint had walked past. He’d laughed at Tony’s predicament, but had scavenged an outfit from his closet, telling him it didn’t matter. “I’m sure Prince Charming will like you anyway.”

He had gone with Clint’s suggestion, casual, a pair of dark jeans and white button down shirt with a jacket. He hadn’t had the heart to say no to a guy who had been watching Tony’s date preparation with a mixture of amusement and longing. Tony wonders how many times Clint and Coulson managed to go on an actual date rather than just catching time between missions.

 He’s actually glad of Clint’s help really, because he had been too distracted by his bickering with Clint to wonder if this was a mistake, was he just going to have his heart broken down the line, God, why had he said yes?! –

When he gets downstairs to meet Steve at the elevator, the man himself comes out of his suite wearing his 1940’s vintage equivalent. Steve is trying valiantly to adapt to the future, but he’d told Tony once, late one night in the workshop that one of the things he missed most was his old clothes. Once he’d left for bed, Tony had put in a call for 1940’s vintage replicas, and some newer pieces to balance it out and gotten him a new wardrobe. He’d had it delivered a few days later, putting it in Steve’s room while he was in the gym. Then he’d crept away back to his work, not wanting to see Steve’s face in case he’d managed to get it wrong. Steve had found him a couple of hours later, his footsteps thumping on the stairs. Before Tony had even had a chance to turn completely around, Steve had engulfed him in a hug. Tony had stiffened, and then relaxed into it, tentatively wrapping his arms around Steve in return. 

“Thank you,” Steve had said, and Tony had tried not to shiver at the feel of his breath against his ear. “Ever since I got back everyone’s only really given me what they think I need for this time. No one really thought about what I wanted.”

Tony had wanted to say that it was only a few clothes, hardly even a slight jump in what he usually spent on a daily basis. But then Steve had pulled away, looking at him so gratefully that all he had been able to say was, “You’re welcome.”

Steve wears newer clothes to the press events and functions Fury forces them to go to once in a while, but around the tower, and when he’s out with his team, he wears what Tony got him. At the time he’d done it for Steve, but now, seeing him all dressed up for their date, he feels like it was a good investment for him too.

Steve smiles at him. Tony, being himself, very obviously looks him up and down, grinning when Steve blushes at the attention. “Well, aren’t you looking very rakish this evening?”

“You look really nice too, Tony,” Steve says, and it should sound like a thing someone just says, but Steve is so endearingly earnest. And Tony likes it. Tony grew up in a world of fakes who pretended to like him because he was a billionaire playboy and only wanted to be around him when they were having fun. It’s so weird for someone to say something so simple and have it actually mean something.

 

 

They get Happy to drive them, and Tony asks Steve where they’re going.

“Well. I wasn’t really sure where’s good to go, so I asked Pepper and she said you really liked the Gala, so I thought maybe you’d like to go there?”

Tony does like the Gala. It’s incredibly expensive, the kind of place where they would give you a suit jacket at the door, but to be honest if you aren’t wearing one, you aren’t getting near the door, let alone the maître d’. It’s extremely formal, and though Tony doesn’t care for that, he just enjoys going there to shake it up, since they won’t kick him out while his name and his money are still good. But he knows Steve would feel stifled and wouldn’t relax the whole night, not wanting to embarrass himself or Tony (though Tony’s sure he would upstage him in the manners department with hardly any effort at all). That’s not what Tony wants. So even though he is pretty flattered Steve went to the effort of finding somewhere he likes and no doubt getting Pepper to book it for them (which he thinks maybe means they’re ok now, if she’s helping someone else plan a date for him), he says, “Actually, if you’re open to suggestions, I was thinking we could try this little place I know?”

Steve looks a little relieved, and Tony has the feeling he had already scoped the Gala out before he’d even asked Tony. “Sure, wherever you want.”

Tony is pretty sure Steve is still expecting something along the same lines as the Gala, so Tony basks in his astonished expression when they get out of the car in front of a small out-of-the-way Thai restaurant.

He sends Happy home and they head for the entrance, Steve managing to dart in front to open the door for him. Tony feels like he should remind Steve that he’s not a girl, but Steve never really got to do this is his time. It makes Tony feel that this, them, is important enough that Steve’s really trying to impress him. Besides, it’s kind of sweet.

“Mr. Stark!” he hears as they enter and the man behind the counter comes up to him, shaking his hand enthusiastically. “We haven’t seen you in awhile.”

“Cha,” Tony greets, smiling. “You know how it is, busy saving New York all the time.”

Cha laughs. “So I saw. Oh, so then this must be-”

Steve puts his hand out for him to shake. “Steve Rogers. Nice to meet you, sir.”

Cha laughs again (this is why Tony likes him so much, he is always laughing) and taps his nose. “Undercover are we? Then I suppose you’ll be wanting your usual table, Mr. Stark?”

Tony grins. “If it isn't too much trouble.”

Cha waves his hand. “Not at all. Give me a moment to set it up.”

He walks away briskly leaving Tony and Steve by the door.

“He seems to like you a lot,” Steve says with a questioning smile.

“I come here when I want to be able to sit and eat without being bothered,” Tony tells him. “Cha and his family are really nice people. Help me keep out of the way of curious eyes and even more curious cameras.”

Cha comes back, leads them up a flight of stairs to the roof. It’s not much, just a rundown unused rooftop, but there’s a few garden lights, a table with a candle and an outdoor heater positioned beside it. The building isn’t very high, but it’s enough that they get a nice view of the city lights. Steve pulls out Tony’s chair for him, which Tony accepts with a smile.

Cha takes their drink orders, bringing back orange juice for Steve and a beer for Tony. He would normally pick something with a little more kick than a beer, but for once, he thinks, being not drunk might be for the best. Cha waits while they peruse the menus, Tony ordering his usual, and suggesting options for Steve who hasn’t had any experience with Thai food at all. Cha leaves with their orders and then it’s only him and Steve. On a date.

He feels like it’s going to be awkward. He can wine and dine with the best of them, but this is Steve. It’s a completely different playing field. He thinks that any minute the silence is going to get to him and he’s going to start rambling about something wildly inappropriate and-

“So. How are the suit upgrades going?” Steve asks, and it’s as easy as that.

They eat and talk, about Avengers business, and that new TV show that Clint introduced Steve too, about Tony’s work and Steve tells him a few of the funnier stories from the war. Tony enjoys himself immensely. He hasn’t had this much fun on a date in a long time. When it comes to dates, he’s usually only thinking about the end game, or nodding at the right times while really his mind is whirring over the dozen things he has to get done at any given time. He listens to Steve intently and he thinks that for the first time he has something to thank his Dad for. He knows that the serum didn’t make Steve as he is, sometimes sweet and charming, and other times stubborn as hell and devious when he puts his mind to it. But if his Dad hadn’t worked with Erskine, Tony wouldn’t have met Steve, and that, Tony decides, would be an absolute tragedy.

 

At the end of the night, they say goodbye to Cha, and head back to the tower. Steve, ever the gentleman, walks Tony to his door, then stands rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. It’s possibly the most adorable thing Tony has ever seen, so in the end he takes pity on him. He wraps an arm around Steve’s waist pulling him close and pressing their lips together. He keeps it light, leaving the option of taking it further to Steve. Steve squeaks, and then melts into it, one arm around his shoulders the other brushing the hair at the back of his neck. Tony gasps and Steve takes the initiative, sliding his tongue gently against Tony’s with an appreciative groan. Inexperienced or not, Steve is really good at this. They kiss for a while, and then Tony reluctantly pulls away. Steve is pink in the face, lips a little swollen, and the image is so endearing that Tony ducks in for another quick peck. Steve wants to do this properly, and Tony thinks he might be right.

 

“Night, Steve.”

Steve smiles at him, slow and soft. “Night, Tony.”

 

 As time passes, he and Steve get closer and closer. It’s, well, it’s pretty amazing really.  Steve understands when he has to work, and he doesn’t worry as much about Tony in the field as Pepper did, because he’s right there watching Tony’s back and fighting alongside him. They start to sleep together, and Tony actually means just sleep together, because most nights Steve drags him out of the lab after a long jag and they end up crashing in the same bed, doing what Tony will not call cuddling (but it so totally is). Tony learns to live with Steve needing the electric blanket on sometimes even when it’s warm out (Steve will lie there shivering on the nights they sleep in the same bed, not wanting to make it uncomfortable for Tony. Tony just sighs and asks JARVIS to take care of it, ignoring Steve’s protests). Tony builds Steve better gym equipment because he knows it frustrates Steve when he can’t train long enough to break a sweat. They argue sometimes because they’re both too stubborn not to clash on occasion, but they also go out for walks and watch movies, Tony’s head in Steve’s lap, Steve’s fingers brushing through his hair. It works, the two of them, and Tony’s pretty happy.

 

He doesn’t push the sex thing at all.  He’s surprised to find he likes it, the taking it slow thing. It’s a new experience for him as well as Steve, because Tony had been thrown into parties almost as soon as he could walk, had broadened all his sexual boundaries with older girls and guys who were just as drunk as he was. It’s amazing to kiss Steve until he’s flushed and panting, without having to touch any other part of his body. It’s different. Good different. 

But he’s not going to lie, when they finally get around to having sex, Tony is pretty fucking ecstatic.

 

They’re in bed one night after a day of fighting evil and avenging justice, and whatever else the PR team came up with to describe the Avengers beating up a villain calling himself ‘The Brainwasher’ and who, _shockingly_ , wanted to brainwash the population of New York and make them into his slave army. It wasn’t too hard to defeat him, though he’d had a few interesting weapons that Tony was looking forward to dissecting in the morning. They’d come back to the tower and pretty much gone straight to bed. Tony had lain down, only to have a nice warm Steve roll on top of him and starting kissing him hot and slow. Tony kissed him back, hands roaming over Steve’s cotton covered back, pulling him closer. They move against one another for a few minutes before Tony feels Steve shift a little, and suddenly there’s a hand creeping under the waistband of his boxers. He squeaks in surprise, and Steve breaks the kiss, pulling away to look at him.

“Is this ok?” he asks, sounding nervous and Tony nods quickly.

“It is absolutely ok.” He moves back to kiss Steve, only to groan as Steve’s hand wraps around his cock, warm and strong and Tony’s hips buck up of their own accord. Always one for equal opportunity, Tony rolls them over and lets his hands wander down to the front of Steve’s boxers to check the lay of the land. When his fingers brush the tented fabric, Steve’s hips jerk forward to follow the pressure. Tony breaks the kiss to laugh gently.  “Eager are we?”

“You have no idea,” Steve admits, blush rising in his face, and that’s too much for Tony.

“Clothes off, now.”

Steve, bless his little soldier heart, starts to strip at the command, Tony following behind him. Once they’re both suitably naked, Tony pushes himself up to look Steve over. “God, just look at you,” Tony says, his voice rough. Because Steve is all firm muscle and smooth skin and possibly the hottest thing Tony’s ever seen.

Steve smiles and Tony feels that familiar tug in his chest that appears whenever Steve looks at him like that.

Being the more experienced of the two of them, Tony thinks maybe he should take charge. He does what he wanted to do since Steve took off his shirt, kisses Steve on the mouth before moving down his jaw, to his neck, to his chest. He gives a fair bit of attention to Steve’s left nipple, which has the man writhing beneath him, and gasping a little above his head. He moves to the right nipple, tongue showing the same amount of care before continuing down Steve’s abdomen to his destination.

As he reaches Steve’s left hipbone, he risks a look at Steve’s face. Steve’s eyes are wide open, filled with a combination of shock and arousal, and his mouth is slack. Tony smiles at him wickedly, before moving suddenly to run his tongue up the length of the shaft. Steve cries out, his whole body jerking hard.

Tony sits up, smirking. “Good?”

Steve’s pupils are blown, and he nods frantically. His hands are clenching and unclenching rapidly, and Tony thinks that if Steve weren’t such a gentleman he’d have tried to pull Tony back down by now. He takes in the flush spreading across Steve’s skin and decides to take pity, moving to take Steve’s cock into his mouth, lips sliding as close to the base as he can manage. He hollows his cheeks, sucking firmly, before drawing away. Steve is whimpering, body tense as he tries to hold himself still. Tony reaches out, taking one of Steve’s hands and placing it on his head. Steve’s a quick study, other hand coming to tangle gently in Tony’s hair, and the next few minutes are lost in the sounds Steve makes as Tony’s head bobs back and forth, tongue tracing intricate patterns over the hot firm skin. It doesn’t last long, not that Tony expected it to, and Steve tries to stutter out a warning.

“Tony! I-Oh god-” Tony ignores it, tightening his lips as the bitter taste floods his mouth. He keeps moving until it finishes, swallowing hard until Steve gently tugs on his hair to make him stop. He looks at Steve now, limp and face like a kid that just got told that every day is Christmas.

“Alright there, babe?” he asks, laughing when Steve surges up, pulling him against his chest and kissing him furiously. They go at it for a few minutes, before Tony becomes aware of the fact that he’s rocking against Steve’s thigh. It feels good, but it’s not enough. As he shifts for better position, his leg brushes against something. Tony pulls away in surprise, looking down at Steve’s lap.

And Steve’s all ready to go again.

“It must be my birthday,” Tony tells Steve seriously, and Steve looks up at him, face a bit dazed.

“What?”

“It has to be my birthday, because there is no other way the universe would gift me with a gorgeous super soldier who has the _fastest refractory period ever_. Seriously, I am not that lucky.”

Steve, who had blushed at the word ‘gorgeous’- and oh god the flush went right down to his chest – looks at him a little shyly. “Is this- um, I mean, is it not what you were expecting?”

Tony shakes his head. “No it is not,” and Steve hunches a little.

Tony kisses him again. “It is so much better than what I was expecting.” And that tugs a pleased smile out of Steve. They kiss a bit longer, Steve’s hands roving over Tony’s back and shoulders until Steve breaks it, speaking low into Tony’s ear.

“Can we- I want to do something for you.”

“Anything, anything you want.”

“Well I thought, maybe you could- well, like you do with dames only, instead with me?”

Tony fights hard against a smile as Steve valiantly stumbles over the words. He leans down, lips brushing the lobe of Steve’s ear as he whispers huskily, “Why Steve, are you asking if I’ll fuck you?”

Steve shudders, then nods. Tony looks at him closely. The idea clearly turns him on, but Tony can also see the apprehension lurking behind it.

“You know, I don’t think I will just yet,” he tells Steve, as he sit up to straddle his hips.

Steve face falls a bit, and Tony can already see the _Is it me?_ flashing through his head.

Tony leans over to the bedside table, grabbing the necessary supplies and placing them on the bed beside them. “I think,” he says as he leans back, his hand sliding behind him to curl around Steve’s cock, making the man moan, “that I might take a turn with this instead, hmm?”

At Steve’s breathy, “Uh huh,” (not that he thinks Steve really understands what he’s saying at this point. Steve may be super human, but that second word still applied, and he was pretty sure Steve was having trouble thinking, what with all the blood in his body rapidly fleeing downwards), Tony lets go, and reaches down to pluck the lube from the sheets. Popping the cap, he drizzles it onto his fingers before rising up on his knees and reaching behind. Steve makes an incomprehensible sound as his brain apparently comes back online and he realises exactly what’s happening. From his position, Tony knows he can’t see much except for the movement of Tony’s hand between his legs, but that doesn’t seem to matter as he watches intently. As one finger becomes two, Tony starts to crook his fingers, searching for just the right-

His next breath comes out as a breathy moan and his eyes fall shut. Tony rides his fingers for a moment or two before he’s pulling out, adding more lube and pushing in a third. He opens his eyes as he feels a touch on his leg, seeing Steve’s hands running up and down the insides of his thighs, adding to the heat low in his gut. Reluctantly he removes his fingers, wiping them on the bed sheets before leaning forward to kiss Steve, palms flat on his chest.

“You ready?” he asks, as he pulls away.

“Always,” Steve answers with a small smile, and Tony feels the warm glow in his chest that is rapidly becoming a common occurrence around this man. He reaches for the foil packet, opening it and rolling the condom onto Steve, who squirms at the contact. When that’s done, he rises up on his knees, and then shifts back, sliding down slowly until Steve is inside him fully. Tony hisses at the stretch, then a moment later sighs as the pain ebbs away, moving into the pleasurable slide of skin. He clenches his muscles experimentally.

Steve’s eyes slam shut and he moans. “Oh, Tony!”

Tony begins to lift himself up slowly and then back down, keeping a slow pace. This is Steve’s first time after all; he isn’t going to last long, so Tony wants to draw it out as much as possible.

He shifts his hips, gyrating slowly, groaning low in his throat as the change in angle causes delicious pressure against his prostate. It’s good, so good, and he starts to move a little faster, thrusting himself down on Steve, whose hands are gripping his thighs tightly.

“Tony, Tony, Tony-” Steve’s gasping his name, raising his own hips instinctively to meet Tony’s. The rhythm is awkward, but it doesn’t matter, he’s getting close, Tony can tell. He wraps his hand around his length, stroking in time with Steve’s thrusts. It doesn’t take long. The view he has of Steve is unbearably hot, helping to push him faster towards the edge. He cries out as he comes, the post-orgasmic tightening of his body finishing Steve off a few seconds later. They’re both panting, and Tony rolls off Steve to lie alongside him. He slides the used condom off the man next to him, knotting it and throwing it in the direction of the bin. Then he rummages around in the open bedside drawer until he finds a few tissues to give them both cursory wipe. As he collapses back down he smiles as Steve’s hand curls around his wrist, and pulls him to lie with his head on his chest.

After a few minutes of getting their breath back, Tony tilts his head at Steve. “So, what did you think?”

“Sex is the best thing ever,” Steve blurts out quickly, way too honest, and then he blushes making Tony laugh.

“That’s definitely the reaction I was going for,” he tells him, leaning up to kiss him. He’s starting to feel tired, so he kisses Steve once more, and then leans forward to pull the sheets over them.

He reclines back to lie on Steve and is just starting to drift off when Steve speaks low in his ear.

“Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“That was amazing. Thank you.” His voice is a grateful whisper, and Tony wonders what it had been like for Steve before that he feels like he has to thank Tony for having awesome sex with him.

“No need to thank me,” he says seriously. “Trust me when I say the pleasure was definitely mine.”

 

 

TBC…


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say thank you for all the lovely kudos I've received. It's awesome. 
> 
> Also, a BIG thank you to Teyke, who helped me get this all pretty and polished :) I did the final edits myself, however, so any remaining mistakes are my own.

Things go pretty smoothly for a while, until about two months after the team moves in, when Coulson comes back. Well, comes back isn’t really the right word.

What happens is this: It’s about 10:30pm on a Tuesday and Tony’s doing his monthly SHIELD hack- since he, Bruce and Steve didn’t trust them not to keep things hidden away after that business with the tesseract- when he comes across something in the surveillance footage. It’s JARVIS who finds it; Tony had checked the information files while JARVIS had scanned the video logs.

“Sir, I may have found something.”

“What is it?”

“There appears to be personnel on this footage who shouldn’t be here.”

Tony frowns. That’s a bit odd. “It’s not a new SHIELD agent is it?”

“No, sir. The person found is a member of SHIELD who, according to my data, is registered as deceased.”

“Who is it?”

“Agent Coulson, sir,”

Tony starts. “That’s not possible.”

“Facial recognition scans confirm it.”

“Pull it up.”

 JARVIS does and suddenly there’s Coulson, from yesterday apparently, walking through SHIELD to Fury’s office, carrying paperwork like nothing has happened. Tony feels an awful mix of happiness that the man’s not dead, and anger at apparently having been tricked, at all of them having been tricked, including Clint and god what the fuck had Fury been thinking doing that to him-

He stops, unclenching his fingers from their grip on the edge of the table. No, he can’t do this yet. He has to be sure. He can’t let his team know and have them be hurt more if it turns out to be a mistake.

He stands up. “JARVIS, I’m going out. Don’t tell the others.”

“Yes, sir. May I ask, are you are sure this is the best course of action?”

Tony laughs a little. “Probably not, but it’s the one I’m going with.”

“So business as usual then, Mr. Stark.”                         

 

Normally, Tony would just rock up in the suit, be utterly impressive and get his way. This time though, he’s not sure it’s as stealthy as he’d like it to be, and he wouldn’t put it past Fury to hide Coulson away at the first sign of Ironman. He still straps on the Mark VII’s cuffs (not being connected in some way to the suit makes him twitchy), but takes a car, parking it away from the base, before walking up to the front door. He’s got clearance, so they let him in, though it takes a bit of hacking to gain access to the agents’ sleeping quarters. He uses his Starkphone to knock out surveillance in the corridor, and then scans the block for Coulson’s specific heat signature. It’s at the end of the hall, the door unmarked. His stomach twists nervously, because he and Coulson may not have always seen eye to eye, but he liked the guy, and apparently Coulson had believed in him enough that he thought he could be an Avenger. A hero.

He wants so badly for this to be true for him and for the team, but mostly for Clint. Because no matter how comfortable Clint gets at the tower, it’s like the archer is always held back by something, weighed down, and Tony _knows_ it’s this.  He steps up to the door and knocks gently. He waits, and he can hear footsteps approaching. It opens and Tony’s looking into the face of a man he went into battle to avenge. He looks tired, thin, and still a bit pale, but he’s alive and that’s enough.

“Stark?” Coulson looks at him, confused- or at least Tony assumes that it’s confusion, given that it’s delivered in his usual deadpan manner. “What are you doing here?” And Tony laughs because only Coulson could come back from the dead and be confused by _Tony’s_ presence here.

“I think that should be my question.”

Coulson stares. “Well, this is the SHIELD base. And these are my quarters. What more do you need?”

It’s too much. “We thought you were dead!”

“What?” And Coulson’s tone has a little steel to it now.

“We thought. You. Were. Dead,“ Tony enunciates forcefully. “Fury told us Loki killed you, and yet here you are. Where have you been? And how are you here?! _How could you do that to Clint?_ ”

Coulson looks a little surprised, Tony assumes, at the fact that Tony knows about the two of them. But he also looks pissed off and for once not at Tony. “I was recovering up until two weeks ago, and then Fury sent me on an urgent reconnaissance mission. I just got back.”

Tony stares at him. “You couldn’t have called?”

“I didn’t know what Fury had told you. I was in a coma for a month, then when I woke up it took me a while to get back on my feet. I have been on total radio silence because Fury told me everyone was busy with clean up.” Coulson is actually losing his usual unwavering demeanour and it’s freaking Tony out a bit. “I have been trying to contact Barton since I woke up, but I was told he was on a mission and was unreachable. Am I to understand this is not the case?”

Tony nods and Coulson’s lips thin. “Let’s go,” Colson bites out, before he closes his door and starts down the hall.

Tony jogs to catch up. “Where are we going?”

“To wherever Barton is living. Has he got an apartment or something?”

“No, he’s at Stark Tower. We all are.”

“You’re all…living together?” Phil asks, sounding a little bewildered and extremely dubious.

Tony slaps him carefully on the shoulder, and smiles at the man. “You were one hell of a motivation, Coulson.”

 

It’s late when they get back to the tower but Tony doesn’t think anyone will mind him waking them up this time. He tells JARVIS to get them all up and tell them it’s important but not an urgent threat, and waits for them all to stumble out of bed.

 

Natasha is first, coming into the living area already glaring at Tony as he stands in the kitchen making coffee. “You better tell me what was so important,, Stark, before I kill you with your own coffee filter.”

“That seems pretty harsh, considering what I picked up for everyone while I was out.”

“What-”

“Romanoff,” Coulson calls from his spot at the dining table, and Natasha freezes.

Her head whips around to stare at him, her face still an impassive mask.

“JARVIS,” she says quietly, and waits for him to acknowledge the query. “Confirm identity, Phil Coulson.”

JARVIS is silent a moment before replying, “Scans and fingerprints taken from the elevator touch controls confirm the identity of Agent Phil Coulson of SHIELD, Ms. Romanoff.”

She swallows and then, in a move Tony never expected, she walks over and kisses Coulson’s cheek, saying, “Welcome back, sir.”

Coulson looks flattered and seems about to say something when the other Avengers start to file in.

Thor sees the man at the table and grins big and wide. “Son of Coul! You live!”

He goes to sweep Phil up in a hug, before Tony calls, “Careful big fella! The man is still getting over his little encounter with Loki.”

Thor pulls back, clasping Coulson gently on the shoulder, while Bruce shakes his hand with a smile. Steve stares at Coulson, shocked, and then turns at Tony with a small smile that says he knows Tony was responsible, somehow. Tony just shrugs. Before he can say anything, Clint finally arrives, looking rumpled and put out that he had to get up.

“Stark, I swear to God this had better be fucking important or I will plant an arrow in your-” His eyes bug out as he takes in Coulson surrounded by his teammates. His face drains so rapidly that Tony is afraid he might actually faint. Clint looks to Natasha, questioning, and when she gives him a sharp nod, he flies forward. He wraps himself around the other man, tucking his face tight against his shoulder, while Phil whispers, “I know, I’m sorry. I only just found out what the Director told you, I’m sorry,” into his hair. The other Avengers beat a swift retreat to give them some time alone.

 

The next day, Coulson comes to Tony in the workshop and thanks him for taking Clint in and making sure he was looked after while Phil was otherwise detained. Tony wonders if he’s talking purely about the tower or whether Clint said something to him. He hopes it was the latter, because he’d like to think he managed to help Clint out. Right now though, Tony isn’t sure what to say, which seems to be happening more and more these days. So he just nods and tells him, as casually as he can and without making eye contact, “You know, you can stay too if you want.”

 

After that Tony is more often ‘Tony’ than Stark, except for when he manages to piss Coulson off, and Clint is visibly more relaxed and more prone to laugh. Tony counts this as a job well done. Coulson returns to SHIELD a few days later, Clint in tow since the archer refuses to leave his side. He doesn’t tell them what goes down, but when he comes back, he’s the Avenger’s new liaison and he has assurance that SHIELD won’t be interfering with them anymore except to offer support and information for possible threats.

 

Given that it’s pretty clear that Stark Tower is now doing the bring-your-significant-others-to-live-with-you thing, the next step is that Tony invites Jane Foster to move in, along with Darcy. He even makes Darcy his PA, since he has been lacking one since ‘Natalie’ left. Thor, of course, is absolutely delighted, laughing wildly and pulling both women into a crushing (by Earth standards, not Asgardian, _thank god_ ) hug.

 

Tony meets Doctor Elizabeth Ross entirely by accident at a dinner for scientific research. She approaches him, pulling him aside and asking after Bruce, because she saw them fighting together in New York. He decides the easiest way to deal with this, since he’s essentially already running a shelter for wayward strays, is to just take her back to the tower for coffee. She never leaves.

 

They start to feel less like a team and more like a family, Tony thinks idly. They still drive him crazy, of course. Clint’s habit of firing various missiles at everyone from his spot in the ceiling means getting coffee is more of a mission than Tony wants it to be when it’s early in the morning. Natasha has a habit of not labelling her favourite food, just expecting everyone to know, and then, when it gets eaten, performing interrogations until she finds the culprit. It’s happened to everyone at least once, including Steve, but he’d been all charming and apologetic and she’d let him go with only a warning (so not fair). Darcy leaves her stuff everywhere so is always asking where something is (Tony had found her tablet in his bathtub, and no one, not even Darcy, can explain how that one had happened).Thor and Bruce are constantly breaking things and Jane eggs on their ‘Hulk vs. the Thunder God’ competitions vigourously. They always end up costing Tony thousands in damage, especially that one time where they left the tower and released a petting zoo, because Hulk wanted to pet the animals, and the escapees interrupted a funeral. Tony had had to apologise to the family _so_ much for that one, and had ended up funding a memorial park for the late Mr. Jenkins to compensate for the trauma, and hadn’t _that_ been a fun press conference. The girls combined, conquer the TV room to watch sappy romance films, growling, or knife twirling in Natasha’s case, at anyone who interrupts. The boys learn to make hasty retreats if they pick the wrong night to stumble in.

Now he sits at the dinner table arguing with Jane and Betty about a paper they’d all read in the latest issue of _Scientific American_ , while Bruce just gazes at Betty, as if he still can’t believe she’s here. Clint fires peas, with startling accuracy considering he’s only using a spoon, at Natasha and Darcy, both of who are throwing back threats of an increasingly violent nature. Tony thinks, maybe, this is the happiest he’s ever been. He feels Steve squeeze his knee lightly, and he smiles, leaning back to rest against Steve’s shoulder. He won’t tell anyone -the last thing he needs is everyone thinking he’s gone soft- but he thinks maybe this is what he’s been working towards his entire life, without even knowing it.

 

This is, of course, when the universe decides that enough is enough, and brings Tony’s fragile new world crashing to the ground.

 

xXxXxXxXx

 

In hindsight, he really ought to have seen it coming. Everyone’s true love coming to live with them. Everyone getting second chances and all that jazz. Tony, now that he knows, realises he was an idiot for getting comfortable and relaxing and thinking that his life could be so good. He should have known that the only person he had any chance of staying with was Pepper, who had known him for years, and even that had fallen through. Should have known that he’d already had his big ‘second chance’ when he made it out of that cave in Afghanistan. Should have known that Steve deserved that second chance more than anyone.

 

Nine months after the Avengers move into Stark Tower, Steve gets a call from SHIELD telling him that they’ve found Sergeant James Barnes. It’s a Sunday and since there’s currently no crime afoot, they’re in bed when the call comes through. At first, Tony thinks they’ve found Bucky’s body. Steve and he had spent plenty of nights in the dark, talking about the stuff they liked to hide away. He knows how much Steve blames himself for Bucky’s death, and he’s hoping that at the very least, Steve might get a little closure. But then Steve hangs up and lies back looking stunned.

“They found Bucky,” he says, and his voice is croaky with emotion. “Alive.”

Tony goes to SHIELD, because he is an Avenger and should be well kept up on Avenger business. That’s the official story anyway. If he’s being honest, it’s because after the phone call Steve had looked all wounded and vulnerable in a way that a _super soldier_ should not be allowed to look.  Coulson comes along too, clearly deciding someone needs to keep an eye on them. When they reach the base, Director Fury is waiting for them. He explains that SHIELD recently recovered a frozen body from the Carpathians. They hadn’t expected Barnes to be alive, but apparently, whatever HYDRA had managed to do to him before Steve had rescued him was enough for his body to survive the cryogenic process.

“I’m afraid his arm must have been severely damaged beyond repair in the fall, though miraculously, it seems it was the only thing that was. It did not survive the freezing. SHIELD medical had to remove what was left, but apart from that, he seems perfectly fine.”

Steve is nodding, but he’s staring at the door behind Fury longingly, and finally Tony says, “Fury, buddy, I know you love a good briefing, but how about we let Cap get in there? Sometime today would be good.”

Coulson vocalises his agreement, though more politely, and takes the file from Fury for them to look at in depth later.

Fury nods, but glares at Tony with his one eye as if to remind him that he’s “not doing this for you Stark, I’m doing it for the national icon over here” and also “you’re lucky I’m not arresting you for breaking into this facility”, then steps aside for Steve to enter.

Steve just stands there, staring at the door for a moment. When he finally moves, he reaches for the doorknob, his hand shaking so bad he can’t grasp it properly. Tony darts forward, sliding his hand down Steve’s arm and squeezing his fingers briefly, before he opens the door for him. Steve looks at him, looking so incredibly grateful that it makes Tony’s chest seize, and then he pushes through the door, shutting it behind him.

 

 

Coulson and Tony stand around to wait. Tony whips out his Starkphone and hacks into the bugs in Bucky’s room to switch them off. He’d do it anyway, but especially he hates the idea of Fury trying to meddle in any way with Steve and what Steve cares about, considering what SHIELD did to Clint and Coulson.

Coulson leans over to see what he’s doing and makes a sound of approval that Tony’s surprised at, given the fact that the man is the king of paperwork and protocol (well, except for the no fraternisation rule, which Tony is sure, if it ever became a problem, Phil could abolish by just submitting the right form). They sit in companionable silence while Coulson reads the file he got from Fury and Tony looks into fixing another suite, because he gets the feeling Steve would feel a lot better with Bucky living in the tower rather than being held at the base. About half an hour later, Steve pokes his head out.

“Tony?”

And Tony’s on his feet in a second, ready to do whatever Steve needs. “Yeah?”

“Could you come in? There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

Tony nods, but inside he feels kind of sick. He may play the big, confident man on campus but he gets the feeling that this right here, the way Steve says it, is in the same vein as meeting the parents. And God knows Pepper’s mother never liked him, always assumed he was some rich guy taking advantage of her daughter (she was right, though not in the way she meant). He looks back at Coulson, worried, but Coulson smiles indulgently. “Get in there, Tony.”

Tony steps inside, closing the door behind him, and slowly goes to stand by Steve who is sitting in the visitor’s chair.

Steve is smiling, like this is the best thing ever, having two people he cares about in the same room. Tony thinks that considering how many people Steve had lost, it might be kind of a novelty.

“Tony,” Steve says quietly, “This is Bucky Barnes. Bucky, this is Tony Stark.”

Tony looks at Barnes directly now. He’s…as attractive as Steve had made him out to be. He could definitely imagine Barnes picking up girls for the two of them.

Tony holds out his hand. “Mr. Barnes, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Barnes raises an eyebrow. “Mr. Stark, huh? I knew your Dad, then.”

Tony sees Steve tense out of the corner of his eye - Steve knows how he is about Howard- but Tony manages to smile through it. Because though he’d been mad at the beginning, having had Steve around, he knows it’s hard for a guy who knew his dad back in the day to know how different he was for Tony.

“Guess so. So how are you finding the future? Everything you thought it was?”

“Well, I’m told there are no flying cars, that’s a bit of a disappointment if I’m honest.”

Tony smirks, because Steve had told him that story, carefully, trying to play down Howard’s part in it. It had been ok though, because it hadn’t really been about his dad, had it? It had been about Steve and meeting Doctor Erskine, and saying goodbye to Bucky the first time.

“I’m sure there’s plenty of other good stuff we can introduce you to,” Tony says, and Barnes smiles.

“I’m sure there is. Steve tells me you might be able to do something about this?”

He lifts back his shirt with his right arm to reveal the stump where his arm should be.

Steve looks embarrassed for a minute, and a bit guilty for having offered Tony’s services without asking him, but Tony places a hand on Steve’s shoulder and says, “Of course I can. I’ll have something for you soon.”

He already has about ten different possible designs going through his head, he’s going to have to work with Bruce to work out how to hook it up to react to the motor commands from Barnes’ brain-

Barnes smiles. “Thanks.”

Tony comes back to the here and now. “Not a problem.”

Tony isn’t sure what to do now. Steve probably wants to stay for a bit longer, and apparently Tony now has a robotic prosthetic to design.

“Well, it was nice to meet you Mr. Barnes, I’d better be off, work to do, multi-billion dollar company to symbolically run.”

He wants to kiss Steve goodbye, but he’s aware that Barnes has just woken up, and he might not be ready for that kind of culture shock yet. So he just squeezes Steve’s shoulder gently. “I’ll leave Coulson and the car with you, get Happy to pick me up.”

“Ok, I’ll see you when I get back,” Steve says and Tony smiles before leaving.

He fills Coulson in, who tells him he has paperwork to catch up on anyway, and Tony heads out, Happy already waiting for him.

As they’re driving back he sends Steve a message.

 

_There’s a place for the sergeant at the tower if he wants it._

xXxXxXxXxXx

It’s eight o’clock before Steve and Phil get back to the tower. Tony knows because JARVIS alerts him. He’s in his workshop, working on the plans for the arm. He’d already contacted Phil earlier in the day to ask what kind of functions the arm needs to have and Phil told him there’s a chance Barnes might be joining their little ragtag band of heroes, so it would be good if the arm had a few hero qualities to it. Tony is building in super strength- not quite as strong as the suit, since it might take time for Barnes to adapt to having a robotic arm, but definitely a great deal stronger than the average human- and a few weapon capabilities. He’s just about done with preliminary planning - he’ll start the prototype tomorrow - when Steve comes into the workshop.

He looks at the schematics on the 3D screen and sighs.

“You’re just aces, you know that?” Steve asks tiredly, as he wraps his arms around Tony pulling his back against his chest and resting his chin in Tony’s hair.

Tony laughs. “I’m not sure if you should be spending time with that Barnes boy, he’s getting you back into those old Brooklyn habits of yours, and you know how those get me. I’ll never get any work done.”

Steve chuckles. Then he stifles a yawn.

Tony gets up slowly, turning in Steve’s hold to kiss his jawline. “Sounds like someone’s had a long day.”

Steve hums in affirmation and appreciation as Tony moves to his neck.

“Really long.”

“Come on then. Let’s have an early night, ok?”

“Ok,” Steve agrees and Tony leads him to his room, getting him into bed and curling up behind him.

“I just can’t believe he’s alive,” Steve says quietly, and Tony hugs him tighter. “I mean, I still dream about him falling, and yet he’s fine, less than 15 minutes from here.”

“I know,” Tony tells him.

“He’s the best person I know.” Tony manages to suppress a flinch at that. It’s not like he could argue. Bucky Barnes had looked out for Steve since they children, watched his back in the war and, unlike Tony, had never made money through war profiteering.

“As soon as they release him from SHIELD medical you can bring him here, I mean it’s not like I’m against the idea of another hot soldier wandering about the place,” Tony tells him, resting his forehead between Steve’s shoulder blades.

“ _Tony,_ ” Steve says sounding both amused and scandalised, and Tony can hear the smile in his voice. Then his voice gentles as he says, “Thanks Tony.”

“Don’t mention it.”

 

xXxXxXxXxXx

 

Bringing Bucky Barnes to live with them is possibly the worst thing he could have done.  A week after they’d found out he wasn’t dead, Steve had brought him to the tower. He’d introduced Bucky to the others and then brought him down to Tony’s workshop to fit the arm. Steve and Barnes had been impressed by it –as well they should, Tony had thought, haughtily- and then Steve had taken Bucky to show him his room.

 

This is when the trouble starts.

 

Barnes is a charmer. He inserts himself into their group with ease, establishing rapport with the others quicker and deeper than Tony had managed. He spends time on the range with Clint, each using a gun and bow respectively. He drinks with Natasha because he got a taste of Russian vodka when he was with the Howling Commandos. He, Natasha and Clint get on really well together since they’re all effectively soldiers, and that’s something that even time doesn’t change.  He and Thor arm wrestle because they both think it’s a manly sport. Tony’s not sure what Barnes and Bruce bond over, but he’s found them both in the lab a few times when he stops by to ask Bruce something. As for the non-Avengers, well, Barnes’s just all charm to Jane, Betty, Darcy and Pepper (that really riles Tony up, but what can he say? “Stop flirting with the woman who doesn’t want me anymore?” Yeah, he didn’t think so). Surprisingly, Coulson likes baseball, so he, Barnes and Steve spend time watching games and yelling at the television. Steve finally has someone who was around before the Dodgers moved out of Brooklyn, so Tony has walked in on many ‘modern baseball’ laments. Worst of all, is that Steve introduces Barnes to the Internet, but since he still can’t work the tablet, he uses JARVIS. _JARVIS_ is even smitten with Barnes. Everyone loves him.

He doesn’t begrudge Steve from spending time with Barnes. He is Steve’s best friend, who recently came back from the dead. He wouldn’t complain to Steve about that.

 

Though he can’t help but feel like Barnes is encroaching a little too much on Tony’s territory.

 

The first major incident is a few weeks after Barnes’ arrival when Tony goes for Saturday breakfast. Darcy had early on declared it a ‘thing’ and so barring emergencies they were expected to attend. He comes out of his workshop to find Barnes sitting in _his_ seat next to Steve, telling a story that was making the whole table laugh uproariously. He’s annoyed, but fine whatever, so he gets a cup of coffee and slips into an empty seat next to Natasha across from Steve and Barnes.

“Morning,” Steve offers brightly, and Tony mutters a, “Morning _,_ ” before inhaling his coffee.

Barnes looks at him. “Geeze, Stark, you look like you haven’t slept in days.”

He calls everyone else by their first name, and they have all settled in to calling him Bucky. Tony thinks he should be insulted considering he _built the man an arm_.

Tony rolls his eyes. “I’ve been working.”

“Even your old man didn’t work that hard.”

It’s the third time in two weeks that Barnes has mentioned Tony’s father in passing, and Tony is trying to remain calm. He doesn’t want to be a jerk to Steve’s BFF, but its hard. He takes a breath, aware the whole table is watching him, and says, “Well, I’m not my old man, I guess.” It comes out a little jokingly, which Tony is very proud of. The table seems to release the breath it’s holding.

And then Barnes is saying, “No, I guess you’re not.” And his tone is so flat that Tony can’t tell if he’s just agreeing, or whether he’s saying it with disdain. It’s too much. Tony picks up his coffee mug and walks out without looking at anyone.

 

It’s a day or so later when he tries to spend some time with Bruce. They’ve both been preoccupied lately, Tony with work, Steve and Barnes, and Bruce with Betty. He’s missed hanging out just the two of them, like they had before the team moved in. He finishes up his work for the day then heads towards Bruce’s lab. Betty’s out with Jane and Darcy so he thinks he’s got a good chance of getting Bruce to watch _Back to the Future_ so they can criticise the time travel. He wanders down to Bruce’s lab. Bruce isn’t there. Confused, since Bruce spends most of his time in his lab, unless Betty is around or there’s something team related going on), Tony heads back upstairs. He checks Bruce’s room, the gym, the pool, the balcony and finally heads towards the living area. He walks into the main room and hears a noise from the kitchen. He investigates. Bruce is there. And Barnes. Who is baking. _Baking_. Tony stops short.

“What the hell are you two doing?”

Bruce smiles at him. “Hey, Tony. I wanted cookies, and Bucky can bake.”

He waves his hands in a very _therefore_ manner and Tony raises an eyebrow. He looks at Barnes, who is taking a tray of finished cookies from the oven with Darcy’s oven mitts. He looks ridiculous. 

“You bake?” Tony asks, his voice filled with scepticism.

Barnes stares at him dead on. “Yeah, why? You got something to say?”

Tony shakes his head. “Oh no, no. Just you know, Bruce, billionaire over here. I could’ve had cookies from the best bakery in New York just like that.” He snaps his fingers for emphasis. Then he winces internally for feeling like such a cliché.

Bruce shakes his head. “That’s ok, Tony. Sometimes home made is better. Plus Bucky and I had fun.”

He sounds pleased, and Tony suddenly feels ridiculously pissed off. As he turns to leave Bruce grabs a cookie off the tray and throws it to him. He catches it on instinct.

“See you later,” Bruce tells him grabbing one for himself. Tony walks away, biting into the cookie angrily. He shuts away the voice at the back of his head that says the cookie is one of the best he’s tasted.

 

It gets worse as time goes on. Tony tries to get on with Barnes, he really does. He wants Barnes to like him, because he’s so important to Steve, but well, Tony’s not always the most popular person. He rubs a lot of people the wrong way. It shouldn’t be a surprise really. Tony’s decadent lifestyle and snark had made Steve practically hate him on sight when they met too, but unlike Steve, Barnes seems to just like him less and less a time goes on. He catches him watching with a calculating look that he doesn’t grace anyone else with, and Tony can’t decide what to make of it.  When _Natasha_ actually smiles at Barnes, which to be honest is the equivalent of handing Barnes an engraved invitation to join their little group, and Barnes in return gets to call her ‘Nat’ without being killed in a scary and extremely painful way, Tony decides Barnes hasn’t just encroached on his territory, he’s fucking invaded and set up a new regime. 

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, final chapter! Please enjoy :)

 

 

Pepper sends Tony to Tokyo for a week. He talks to Steve a couple of times, though not as often as he’d like, since he has conferences in the day and businessmen to schmooze in the evening. Steve and the others manage to take out an infestation of giant mutant spiders, and get stuck doing clean up for the next few days. As a result, by the time the week is up, Tony misses New York and his family (he’s not afraid to admit that that is how he’s sees them now, so long as it stays in his own damn head), more than he thought he could. It’s weird to feel this way about other people, but it makes Tony feel warmer knowing there’s something at home waiting for him.

 

He flies back via the armour, landing on the pad on the roof, the armour quickly disassembling and being tucked away. He nips down to the workshop first to check on the bots. He’d asked Clint to keep an eye on them (he’d have asked Steve, but he was busy watching out for Barnes after all) and though he had been worried they would have picked up all kinds of terrible habits while he’s been gone, they roll up to him chirping happily like always. He greets them, petting Dummy, You and Butterfingers respectively.

 

Tony feels bone-tired and he thinks maybe he just needs a break. He wonders if he might be able to convince Steve that they should go for a weekend in Honolulu or something, just the two of them, since it hasn’t been that in a while. They’ve just been so busy. But now, Barnes is all settled in and he’s sure he could ask Rhodey to help the team out while they’re gone. Just the thought of sand, surf and Steve makes Tony feel all kinds of warm inside.

 

He walks up the stairs and into the kitchen, wanting nothing more that to just curl up in bed with Steve. He’s just walked through the door when he freezes. The room is dark but he can see the light from the TV flickering above the breakfast bar. The whole team is settled in front of it. He can make out Betty and Bruce on the closest couch, and Jane and Thor on the floor in front of them. Darcy is next to Betty, and Phil and Clint are on the middle couch with Natasha. What catches his eye, though, is on the furthest couch. He can see Steve leaning against the arm, laughing at a joke that Barnes has made. Barnes who is lying with his head against Steve’s side and looking up at him with an expression filled with so much affection and-

Oh.

Tony turns and runs back to his lab.

 

Tony thinks there needs to be some sort of order in his thoughts when dealing with things like this, so he decides to organise his emotional turmoil so that it’s nice and tidy.

Point the First: The team is having a movie night without him. Barnes was invited.

Point the Second: He hasn’t seen Steve in a week, yet Steve doesn’t seem to be concerned about whether he was coming back tonight or not, and neither do the others, since they didn’t think to wait.

Point the Third: Bucky Barnes is in love with Steve Rogers.

These three points, when coupled with other observations from the past few weeks lead to a pretty clear conclusion. His housemates, Steve included, like Barnes better than him.

It hurts, the realisation that Bucky loves Steve, because Tony realises he never asked Steve how he really felt about Barnes. He doubts Steve turned bi overnight after all. And now that being gay is ok, Barnes probably thinks they can make a go of it. Not that he thinks Steve is cheating. No matter how much this hurts, he will never think Steve capable of something like that. But likely Steve will realise, if he hasn’t already, that there’s nothing stopping them now.

Tony feels the tell-tale stinging in his eyes and he blinks furiously.

_Don’t be an idiot, Stark,_ he berates himself furiously. _It’s your fault for getting attached. You know people never stay._

He feels suddenly drained, so he turns off the lights in the workshop and lies down on the couch. It’s a long time before he manages to sleep.

 

When he wakes up, it feels like the morning after a heavy night of drinking. Even though he wants to stay hidden in the workshop, he desperately needs coffee. He makes a mental note to get a coffee machine for the workshop, but then remembers that it’s pointless, since Pepper will just have it removed like she has the last four. She seems to think he needs a least one reason to regularly leave the workshop. He makes it up the stairs to find the kitchen blissfully empty. JARVIS has helpfully already set the machine going, so all he has do is pour the liquid before he can gulp it back too fast, scalding all the way down. He pours a second cup and just as he’s about to leave, Steve comes in. He’s freshly showered, hair still in tousled spikes. And when he sees Tony, his face lights up. It feels like a kick to the arc reactor.

“Hey,” Steve greets, tucking his arms around Tony’s waist. “When did you get in?”

It’s easy to melt against Steve and Tony hates himself for it.

“Just got in,” he lies. “Late meeting.”

“You’ve been kind of busy lately. I missed you.”

He can’t help it. The honest answer comes automatically. “I missed you, too.”

He closes his eyes, savours the feel of the warm body against his for a moment, thinking of nothing else but this. He must linger a little too long, because he feels Steve’s fingers under his chin, tipping his head up.

“You ok?” he asks, eyes soft and concerned. Tony thinks about asking about Barnes and about them, opens his mouth and-

The sound of the others’ approaching footsteps filters in, and he sighs. “I’m fine, Cap.”

Steve frowns, and Tony knows it’s because Tony hasn’t called him Cap in private for months. But this is how it works isn’t it? That’s what Pepper had told him. That they would be ok, and she would be his CEO, but she needed space first. So that’s what he needs to give Steve. Then they can go back to being friends and still fight together, even if Steve’s with Barnes. He steps away and picks up his coffee from the bench.

Steve looks at him, clearly confused. He looks like he’s about to question it, but then Clint and Barnes come in, arguing about some fighting technique, and Darcy is coming in behind them to tell Tony about his schedule for the week. Tony gives Steve a small smile before he slips away to get ready for the day.

It’s for the best, cutting his losses before he loses it all in the fallout of some messy break up. Everything will be fine.

 

XxXxXxXxXxXxXx

 

 

He has several meetings to attend the following week and for once he’s grateful since it means he can spend time outside the tower. He avoids Steve as much as he can without being obvious and tries not to have to talk to anyone. Well, he can’t avoid Darcy who comes to remind him of deadlines and meetings, but everyone else he mostly manages not to have to see for more than a few minutes at a time.

 

On Monday, he’s on time to the Stark Industries board meeting, which makes Pepper ask him what’s wrong, though he manages to dodge her questions and genuinely worried look and slink away. He takes the calls he has to with Tokyo, and signs the backlog of paperwork he’s been neglecting. Steve comes down to tell him Bruce is making dinner, but Tony makes some excuse not to go. Steve tries to talk to him, but Tony’s not ready yet, so he waves it off, burying himself in work and not coming out until Steve retreats upstairs.

 

They get a call out on Tuesday and they all head out, Barnes as back up, and everyone gets on fine. Widow uses him as transport, Hawkeye snarks at him over the comms, Hulk calls him Tin man, and Cap pats him on the shoulder at the end.

“Good job, buddy,” he praises, and Tony realises that they’re doing what Fury had done before they’d got together, making a distinction between Ironman and Tony Stark. Tony wants to hit something, because he is Ironman, dammit! They shouldn’t get to like him just when he’s wrapped up in metal.

 

When he gets up on Wednesday and goes in search of breakfast, he finds both Clint and Barnes eating Clint’s favourite cereal that he makes Tony order from somewhere in Europe. He’d told Tony that if he even looked at it, he would be impaled immediately. Tony finds he isn’t hungry anymore.

 

On Thursday he realises that he hasn’t seen Steve in two days, and Steve hasn’t even come to ask why he’s sleeping in the workshop instead of with Steve like he usually does.

That night he manages to head for the supply of coffee in the kitchen at just the wrong time and gets railroaded into dinner by a disapproving looking Doctor Banner. Barnes is in his seat again. He’s chatting with Bruce about some experiment they did together earlier that day, and doesn’t that feel like a kick to the stomach. He knows it’s childish but Bruce was his friend first, his Science Buddy, and Barnes should get that, considering his own claim on Steve. Tony doesn’t talk to anyone. He keeps his head down, while he mindlessly moves his food around his plate. He misses the annoyed/worried looks from Natasha, the hurt look Steve keeps shooting him, and the confused faces of everyone else.

He’s downstairs later, buffing out a dent he got in their last fight when Clint comes down and pulls up a stool.

“Hey, Tony?”

“Yeah?” He doesn’t want to talk to any of them. Clint’s probably here to ask for a bow upgrade. A mean voice at the back of his mind asks whether he’d be down here at all, if Barnes had any engineering skills.

“No one’s really seen you the last couple of days and I, well, we, were wondering what’s going on with you.”

“Nothing.”

Clint snorts. “Nothing? Oh yeah, that’s why Steve’s got his worried face on twenty four-seven. Of course.”

“Steve worries about everything.”

“Yeah, but you most of all.”

“Well, you can tell him I’m fine.”

“Is it because Bucky is here?” Clint asks, without preamble and Tony feels an ache at the way the name sounds familiar on Clint’s tongue.

“Nothing is wrong. I don’t care if Barnes is here.”

“You know, you’re the only one who calls him Barnes.”

“Yeah, well, Bucky sounds like something out of a bad western. Barnes is better.”

“Sure, sure,” Clint says placating. Then his voice goes kind of soft.

“It’s just, the way you’ve been walking around. You kind of look like-”

“What?” Tony snaps, suddenly angry. “I look like what?”

“Like the fight’s lost before it’s begun,” Clint says and his voice is uncharacteristically gentle. “Kind of how I did, when Phil was gone.”

Tony feels the anger bleed out of him. That’s hardly the same is it? Phil was presumed dead, not walking around just upstairs, and Clint knew Phil loved him. It was ridiculous for him to look as bad off as Clint had, considering how much worse Clint’s situation had been, though that knowledge doesn’t really make him feel any better.

He looks at Clint and tries for a small smile that he’s sure looks as forced as it feels.

“Seriously, Clint, I’m fine.”

Clint looks him in the eyes for a moment and then sighs. “Alright, what the fuck ever man. I tried.” Then he gets up and leaves.

He wonders if they’re worried he’ll make them move out because he’s upset. It’s ridiculous. Of course he wouldn’t. It doesn’t matter how they feel about him, he _cares_ about them all now, and giving them up, having Steve move out and not be able to see him everyday, or go on missions, would hurt more than this does. So much more.

 

 

Everything comes to a head on Friday. He’s just finishing up a lunch meeting, when their next call out happens. He steps out of the restaurant and feels the ground rumble. He can hear the familiar noise of destruction, and heads up the block for a better view. The sun shines off the machine’s metal sides as it rolls through the city. There’s a box at the top, and Tony’s sure that will be where the control centre for the thing will be. The machine itself has multiple mechanical arms, which flail around crashing into buildings and sending debris down on the panicking civilians below. Tony whips out his communicator, opening a channel to JARVIS who confirms the departure of the Mark VII from the tower. He heads into the nearest building, making for the roof access. Once there, he opens the line to the team’s channel.

“Avengers, I have a situation here. What’s your ETA?”

Steve’s on the comm, almost immediately. “JARVIS just raised the alarm and sent your co-ordinates. We’ll be there shortly.”

“Rogers that.” He smiles as he hears Steve’s customary sigh.

The wristbands he’s wearing start to blink red, indicating the suit’s proximity and he looks up to see it shooting towards him at speed. Once it’s close enough, he leaps off the edge, freefalling for a few brief seconds before he feels the reassuring weight of the armour wrapping around him. He activates the thrusters, sending him back up and towards the threat currently destroying the city.

He tries a few shots at the machine’s metal body to see whether they have any kind of effect.  When they don’t, he flies close to the top box, aiming one of the missiles from his shoulder into it before getting out of the blast radius. He hears the bang and when his scans inspect the site, they show only scorch marks.

“JARVIS, what is this thing even made of?”

“Scans show it as some kind of steel alloy sir, lined with something chemical, though my scans can’t penetrate it to confirm.”

“Relay that to the team, I’m going to see if I can’t slow it down.”

He spirals downward to the bottom, where the thing is moving on a pair of continuous tracks. In his ear JARVIS tells him the tracks are made of the same alloy, but that other than that, aren’t significantly different to the sort used in tanks.

He’s trying to think of ways to disable the tracks, when he hears a scream. Looking up, he sees a woman falling from a recently destroyed building and before he has time to think, he’s firing the boot jets and zooming towards her. He flies up, before dropping to catch her without harming her against the suit. She clings to him as he flies her a block away. When he puts her down she just looks at him, still terrified, but grateful too, and so he just tells her to head for the nearest bridge, because he knows if Coulson’s on top of it (and let’s face it, he always is) there will SHIELD agents at all of them to help civilians get to safety and to help contain the threat. He spends the next few minutes herding civilians out of the nearby blocks. Once he’s sure the immediate area is clear he lands on one of the buildings nearby.

“JARVIS, communicator.” As soon as the symbol shows up on the overhead, he’s speaking. “Guys, where are you? This thing is pretty strong and I’m going to need some help.”

“Ironman!” he hears and realises he can hear it from outside the helmet, too. He looks up and sees Thor, holding Black Widow, landing on the building beside him. “What do you know of our opponent?”

“It’s a big, angry pile of metal.”

“Are you sure we’re not talking about you?” Clint chips in.

“Hey!”

“Avengers,” Steve says patiently, “Let’s keep it relevant, shall we? Ironman, I’m coming in the SHIELD helicopter with Hawkeye and Bucky, you should be able to see us coming in.”

Tony zooms his view screen and indeed sees the chopper heading towards them.

He turns to Widow and Thor. “That thing is tough, but it’s got continuous tracks which I think might be our best bet at stopping it. The rest we can work out after.”

Widow nods, holding out her hands and Tony grasps them, flying low till he can safely drop her on the ground. JARVIS informs him that the chopper has landed and a few moments later Cap, Barnes and Hawkeye are in front of the machine. Cap gives Hawkeye a boost and Hawkeye shoots one of his custom arrows Tony developed into the lines of riveting holding one of the arms on. It explodes, and although it isn’t incredibly effective, it does much more damage than Tony’s attack had.

“Hawkeye, keep doing that,” Tony tells him, then flies low to help Natasha who is trying to jam debris into the tracks.

He can hear Thor on the open channel. “Shall I rain lightning down on this creature, or beat mighty Mjolnir upon it?”

“Not yet, Thor,” Tony answers, quickly. “It’ll be pretty conductive, but I don’t know what the substance coating it is yet, and I don’t know what will happen if it gets hit by a lightning bolt.”

He looks at Natasha. “Any luck?”

“Not at all. Though Cap and Bucky probably have more experience than you or I with these sorts of things.”

Tony groans internally. Oh great, yet another thing ‘Bucky’ would be good at. A small part of him wants to be petty, to fix it himself without the Sergeant, but he isn’t so vain that he would risk his team for the sake of his ego.

“Cap, Barnes, come ‘round the sides.”

A moment later both men are running alongside them as they follow the slow movement of the thing.

“Think you two can take care of this? It’s essentially a tank.”

Barnes and Cap grin at each other in a clear ‘remember that time’ moment that makes Tony’s stomach curl in on itself. He shakes it off as Cap looks to him.

“Yeah, we can do this. Can you take Bucky around the other side? I’ll take this one.”

It’s not the first time he’s had to help Barnes in a fight, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying. He grips Barnes under the arms, zooming around to put him next to the tracks.

“I’m going to try slow it down from the front so that you two have your chance,” he tells him, before taking off.

Tony hovers in front of the machine. The repulsors can’t damage the exterior, but they can damage everything else. Moving back, he blasts the ground in front of the machine, watching as the tarmac ripples into waves. He fires a few more shots until the terrain is marred completely. It’s not enough to stop the machine’s movements, but it is enough to force it to slow down in order to cross the damaged street.

“Barnes, Cap, now.”

He hears the sound of Barnes jamming his prosthetic into the machine and the echo of Steve’s SHIELD doing the same. The noises continue until they are overtaken by another clamour, as the machine begins to shudder violently before coming to a stop.

“We have contained the damage,” Steve’s voice comes over the comms and Barnes cheers.

“Where’s the hulk?” Tony asks suddenly, surprised he hasn’t noticed the absence of the giant green guy before. “He could be really useful.”

“SHIELD’s flying him back. He had his trip remember?”

Oh, that’s right, he and Betty had been off on an overnight ‘scientific conference’. Like Tony didn’t know what that meant.

“Hulk might be able to actually damage this thing. So you know, as soon as he gets here, smash.”

He’s about to say more, when he suddenly becomes aware of the amount of noise around him.  The thing is clunking and groaning, and small panels are lifting up on the main body.

“It’s doing something, everyone back up.”

He shoots backwards to get some distance, turning around just in time to see the open panels start to shoot dozens of small metallic balls into the air.

“JARVIS, what are those?”

“Scans indicate some kind of incendiary device, sir.”

“Fuck! Everyone out of the way, they’re bombs!”

He pulls up the map to show his teammates locations and tracks the trajectory of the projectiles. They’re all at a fairly safe distance, except for- “Barnes!”

There’s not a lot of time for him to think about a course of action, so instead he’s streaking to reach the man before any of the explosives do. Barnes is moving, but not fast enough, the piles of debris slowing him down. Several hit the surrounding buildings, but one lands on the concrete right in front of Barnes with a clang. Tony flies forward to grip Barnes’ arm tightly and drag him into the closest building.

“Stark, what the h-” Tony knocks them onto the floor as the bomb explodes. The explosion is big, considering the size of the device, but the suit takes most of the damage, protecting Tony and Barnes. The whole building rocks violently, pieces of plaster falling from the ceiling.

Tony waits for the aftershocks to let up, but they don’t.

“JARVIS?”

“Sir, the infrastructure is severely damaged, as there were several explosions that also occurred on the upper floors. The building will soon collapse.”

The ceiling above them cracks and half collapses onto them. Tony catches it holding it in place above Barnes and forces himself to standing.

“Sir, there is an 80% chance the integrity of the suit won’t be able to withstand the weight of the building.  It will barely be able to hold the first few floors.”

JARVIS’ scans are showing the top floors are becoming unstable, and the weight Tony is holding increases as the second floor crumbles on top of the first. JARVIS’ scans also show the building is empty, which is the first break Tony’s caught all day.

Tony’s brain is pulling up and discarding possibilities. He needs to organise his thoughts then he can solve the problem.

Problem: He and Barnes are trapped in a collapsing building.

Points to consider: First, he’s the only thing holding the building up, though not for much longer, it’s coming down anyway. Second, Barnes is here with him. Third, Barnes needs to get out of here.

“You need to get out of here,” he tells Barnes, who looks up at him from the floor.

“Yeah, we should-”

“No,” Tony corrects. “You, out that door, now.”

The readouts on the screen are telling him what he already knows. If he stops supporting the building it will come down immediately. Even if he let go and tried to fly, there wouldn’t be enough time to get him and Barnes out; the bomb blast pushed them too far in.

“What about you?” Barnes shouts over the crashes around them.

“I’ll leave once you’re gone.” The lie slips easily off his tongue.

Barnes looks at him suddenly, before narrowing his eyes. “I’m not leaving without you,” he says stubbornly, and Tony wonders if this is where Steve got it from. It’s a shame that he has to hate Barnes on principle, seeing as he’s the reason he has to give Steve up and he’s stealing his family out from under him, because under different circumstances he thinks maybe he might have liked him.

“Barnes, I don’t have time to argue-”

“Then don’t, let’s both go.” Barnes is close to him, standing his ground.

Tony thinks about Steve, and how much it will hurt him if he loses Barnes again. He thinks about how much he loves Steve, and how much Barnes clearly means to the rest of them. He doesn’t want that kind of pain for them. Steve does so much for him, and this is something he can do for Steve. It’s an easy choice.

“JARVIS, if I direct all power to my right arm, how long would I have?”

“No more than 11 seconds, sir.”

“Is it enough?” he asks, because it has to be.

“Barely, sir.” Because JARVIS knows him better than anyone, already knows what he’s asking, his voice sounds just like it did with the nuke when he asked if he should call Pepper.

Tony realises that he’s been blocking the team comm and opens the channel.

There’s yelling from everyone and Cap calling for he and Barnes to, “Sound off, dammit.” He’s cursing, which means he’s really worried, and it sounds like they’re planning to come help. The building is too unstable for that and Tony won’t endanger his team. He has to do it now.

“All power to right arm,” he tells JARVIS and as soon as it’s done, he uses his left to grip Barnes by the front of his SHIELD uniform. “Take care of him for me,” he says to the shocked looking man in front of him, because he needs to know that Steve will be looked after when he’s gone. Then he throws Barnes forward, across the floor, through the open doorway and out onto the street. Barnes has just enough time to look back at Tony, face angry and horrified, before JARVIS is counting down the power percentage in his ear and the building crashes down on top of him.

 

xXxXxXxXx

 

 

When Tony becomes aware of anything again, he hears a slow beeping sound. It’s…kind of annoying, actually. He frowns, trying to find the source of the sound, but it’s too dark. It takes a moment for him to realise it’s because his eyes are closed. At about the same time, he realises he hurts. A lot.

He groans a bit, trying hard to open his eyes. It’s hard, but he manages it. There’s a white wall in his vision, and a door. He looks down at himself, sees the cast around his arm and groans again, though this time in annoyance. He knows where he is: SHIELD medical. He hates it here.

“Finally awake, huh, princess?” a voice beside him says and Tony turns to see Barnes in the chair near his bed.

Tony rolls his eyes. Ow. “God, what did I do to deserve waking up next to you?”

Barnes laughs. “According to Steve? Being a reckless moron.”

“Yeah, that sounds like him.”

“He was worried. You’ve been out for two days. Hang on, I’ll go get the Doc.”

Barnes returns with a SHIELD doctor, who grabs the chart from the end of the bed.

“Well, Mr. Stark, you were incredibly lucky.”

Tony snorts. “I don’t feel it.”

“I don’t doubt it. You came in with a dislocated shoulder, extensive facial bruising from the pressure of your faceplate-” that would be why it hurts to open his eyes and everything feels kind of puffy, “a minor concussion, three cracked ribs on your left side, and extensive bruising right across your abdomen. We were concerned about internal bleeding, but you managed to escape that, though I have no doubt you’ll be sore for a long while.”

Tony nods. Considering how he feels now, he’s not surprised.

“Do you have any questions?”

“Yeah, how did I-?” He gestures with his good arm to try and indicate his being alive in a hospital and the doctor nods in understanding.

“As I understand it, when the building came down, some of the foundations collapsed around you, which, along with you suit, created some protection. But don’t underestimate it,” the doctor tells him firmly. “You’re definitely lucky to be alive.”

He heads out after that, leaving Tony with Barnes.

There’s silence for a while. Then Barnes clears his throat.

“Why did you do it?”

“Why did I do what?”

Barnes glares at him. “Don’t play dumb, Stark, it doesn’t suit you. Why did you throw me out of there?”

“So that you would get out, Barnes, what do you think? I wasn’t getting out, no need for both of us to die.”

“If you’d have waited, we might both have made it out. The team could’ve gotten us out,” Barnes shoots back, hotly.

His tone gets Tony’s hackles up. “The building was coming down, Barnes. You think I was going to put my family at risk like that?”

Bucky’s eyebrows shoot up for some reason, but he doesn’t do anything except continue his argument. “That’s their call. You didn’t see how angry Clint was when he found out, or Nat. Bruce is probably not speaking to you, by the way, the Other Guy had to dig you out, and he was worried.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “That’s because the Hulk hates digging through fibreglass. It itches. I don’t know what you’re worried about anyway. You won. Congratulations! They like you better. I’ll just go back to being the hermit in the workshop, thank you very much.”

Barnes stares at him. “Steve’s right. You are an idiot.”

Tony huffs, folds his arms over his chest, then unfolds them when the movement makes his body hurt. His injuries remind him of the fight, and it suddenly occurs to Tony that he doesn’t know how the rest of the battle went. He doesn’t want to have to ask Barnes, but he’s got no choice. He has to know.

“What happened with the giant, mechanical thingamajig? Is everyone all right?”

“Bruce showed up not long after you went under. The Hulk ripped that thing to shreds. It was being controlled remotely, so SHIELD tracked the signal and Coulson picked the guy up. They’re all fine. The doctors wouldn’t let all of them stay, only Steve, and he was here until about an hour ago when I sent him back to the tower.”

“And he went?” Tony asks, incredulous. A stubborn Steve was a truly unmoveable thing.

“Natasha took him.”

“Ah.” That made sense.

“I thought it would be good for him to get something to eat, change of clothes. Plus I wanted to talk to you.”

“Do I have to?” Tony asks. He’s tired, and the pain is getting worse.

“Yes,” Barnes says, tone brooking no argument. “But first I’ll get the nurse to give you more painkillers. Your wincing is putting me off.”

Barnes leaves and returns a moment later with a nurse, who places a needle in his I.V tube and injects his meds. A few minutes later, he feels the pain drop to a more manageable level.

“So,” Barnes starts, looking at Tony hard. “You don’t like me very much.”

It’s not a question.

Tony frowns at him. “What?”

“You don’t like me,” Barnes repeats. “Yet, you gave me a new arm and saved my life. I admit I’m curious.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “Have you read my file? On the first Avengers mission I flew a nuke into a portal to save the city. You’re not that special.”

Barnes smirks. “Still. Seems strange that you’d bother.”

The painkillers are making his head a bit fuzzy which is the only reason Tony has for saying what he does. “You’re important.”

Barnes’ eyebrows shoot to his hairline. “Important?”

“To Steve.”

“So are you. In fact, maybe even more so, considering-”

“What, that we’re dating?” Tony snaps. He’s not quite ready to say it past tense, and he thinks that if Steve hasn’t managed to break it to him yet, he shouldn’t have to. “You’re the one thing Steve has from his life before. He’s known me a year, he’s known you forever. It’s hard to remember, since for us the war’s long over, but for Steve, it’s hardly been any time at all.”

Barnes’ gaze is hard. “So what, it doesn’t mean anything to you?”

Tony stiffens angry. Ow. “Of course it does. I love Steve, but he’s better off with you.”

Barnes’ face smooths out into a confused expression. “So if you love him, then why are you trying to foist him off onto me?”

“Because I know how much he loves you. I don’t want him to have to choose and I’m not sure I could take it if he does.” He’s so tired but he needs to finish this with Barnes. He doesn’t think he’ll ever have the strength to do this with Steve.

Barnes sighs. “You know when Steve told me about you, and what you two were, I admit I was pretty shocked. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think you two are evil or sinners or anything, it’s just not something that was done in our time, well, not done openly, and it takes some time getting used to the idea that it’s alright now. That even though some people still don’t approve, people actually look down on them, it’s pretty incredible, you know? And then I met you, and I don’t know, I thought maybe you were just another person who was trying to take advantage of him. I mean before he got all super-soldier the dames didn’t really go for him-”

“I’ve seen pictures. Pretty stupid dames,” Tony mutters- because seriously, Steve was _adorable_ back then- and Barnes chuckles.

“Yeah, I always thought so. They didn’t get that he was more than just a scrawny kid from Brooklyn. Then he got big and all of a sudden they cared. I guess what I’m saying is, that kid has always needed someone who got that he was more than just what he looked like. I looked you up, and saw that you were this guy who went with a lot of important people, and I thought, maybe, that you were just with him ‘cause he’s Captain America. But then I realised, there wasn’t anything about you being into guys, and that if you were such a hoity-toity skirt chaser, why would you be with Steve? The papers here really care about who you go with. If you were just in it to be seen with someone impressive, you’ve got enough money to get any kind of broad you want. Why would you make Steve your fella?”

Tony goes to open his mouth, he thinks he should be insulted, though its not like he can deny he slept around a lot before Afghanistan and Pepper.  Barnes puts up his hand to stop him.

“I had it wrong. And I’m sorry. I saw how you were with him, and now that you’re apparently ready to step aside in Steve’s best interests, to the point where you let a building nearly _kill you,_ I know that you’re the one he’s been waiting for.”

Tony’s chest feels tight. He doesn’t think he’s ever had someone say he was good for someone. He never has been. 

He’s not now.

“I’m a placeholder. He doesn’t love me, I mean, I know he cares for me, but I was convenient while you were gone. In all fairness, it’s not as if it was likely you were coming back, seeing as for all intents and purposes you were dead, so it’s not like you can blame Steve for not waiting or anything-“

He takes a breath to stop himself from babbling, no need to draw this out, “-but you’re here now.”

As though that last outburst had drained the last of the energy he had, he feels his eyelids get heavy. Deciding this is probably the best time to get out of the conversation since no one wants to pick on the unconscious guy, he lets them fall shut, falling asleep almost immediately.

 

xXxXxXxXxX

 

When he wakes up again, Barnes is gone and Steve is there.

He’s sitting kind of slumped, staring at Tony’s hand, which he’s holding and stroking gently with his thumb. It feels nice.  He lets it go on for a few minutes, before he squeezes gently to let Steve know he’s awake.

Steve’s head snaps up, his eyes boring into Tony’s.  He’s got his specific worried-about-Tony face on, which always makes Tony feel like a total dick. He also looks exhausted.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” He doesn’t really know what to say, because Steve’s face also looks kind of sad. He’s not sure if he wants to listen to Steve break up with him.

Steve looks torn for a moment, then says quietly, “Ok, so first things first. I want to make it clear that normally I would already be having the ‘Tony-you-need-to-stop-throwing-yourself-into-dangerous-situations-and-nearly-getting-yourself-killed’ talk - and don’t think that you’re managing to dodge that, because what you did was unbelievably reckless - but I think there’s something we need to discuss first.”

He takes a deep breath and then says, “I talked to Bucky.”

Tony hates that they’re doing this here. He’s trapped in this hospital bed, he can’t leave and hide in his workshop if it gets too much. And the last thing he wants to do, while he’s injured and in pain, is to actually have to hear Steve tell him he’s leaving him for Bucky.

“Did you?”

“Yeah, and I really think we need to talk, Tony.”

The worst phrase ever uttered, Tony thinks bitterly.

“First of all, and I’m not sure how you got this from what’s been happening lately, though I guess we have been hanging out a lot together, and I haven’t really seen you much, but you know he’s just woken up, and you said you weren’t bothered, and you’ve been spending a lot of time in the workshop but I just thought it was because you were busy! If I’d have known what you were thinking, I would-”

“Steve,” Tony interjects, because Steve when nervous is worse than Tony. He can babble _forever_.

Steve takes a deep breath. “Bucky and I are not dating. You and I are. I have no plans to date Bucky. Ever.”

“But you two would be great together,” Tony protests. He doesn’t want to, but he wants Steve to miss out on his chance of happily-ever-after with Bucky even less. He just wants Steve happy, even if it hurts.

Steve huffs, exasperated. “Bucky isn’t into men. At all. I really don’t understand how you got that from the stories I told you.”

Oh. That might have been why Barnes had said, “What you two were.” Tony likes to think he would have picked up on that if he hadn’t almost died recently.  

He’s not sure that makes it better, being second best to a man who doesn’t even love Steve back.

“I’m sorry he doesn’t feel the same way,” Tony says, looking down at the bedclothes, and though it’s trite, he means it.

“I am not in love with Bucky,” Steve says and Tony’s eyes snap up to meet his. Steve’s gaze is fiery, and his mouth has a stubborn set to it. “I’m in love with you, you idiot. And I can’t believe that you didn’t know that. I think what bothers me most is that you thought I would just up and leave you for Bucky. I mean, geeze Tony, what kind of guy do you think I am?” He runs a frustrated hand through his hair.

Tony struggles to think of how to answer this, because, wow, Steve loves him, and also because he never thought Steve was cruel.

“No, I mean- I just thought, you two had history, and you’ve already lost so much, Steve-”

“The last thing I would want is to lose you too, Tony,” Steve interrupts vehemently, and it makes something in Tony’s chest unfurl warm and tender. “And I’m sorry if you doubted how I feel about you. This is my first real thing, you know? And I didn’t want to look stupid by saying it too soon or something. I mean with Peggy we never really even said anything, but we both kind of knew we had something, and I guess I just assumed we were like that too. So I’m sorry I didn’t say it before, but I love you, Tony.”

His face is doing that completely earnest thing again, and it makes Tony’s heartbeat speed up.

“I love you too, you know,” he says softly, and Steve smiles, ducking his head in that happy ‘aw shucks’ way that he does. He takes Tony’s hand again, squeezing it firmly.

“Course you do. You’re my best guy after all.” He manages to say it with a straight face, but Tony just laughs, feeling the cold ball of misery he’s been carrying around for the last few weeks start to finally break apart.

 

xXxXxXxXxX

 

Tony is allowed to return to the tower a couple of days later under strict medical instructions. He’s pretty sure he wouldn’t have been allowed but the doctor had taken one look at honest, steadfast Captain America who had promised to make sure Tony doesn’t do anything strenuous, and that he takes his medication, and comes in for a check up the following week. Tony disagrees with all three of these things, but he gets strategy, and it’s the only way he’s going to be allowed out of here. Medical insists on a wheelchair out of the hospital, which is ridiculous, but Tony ends up having to deal, because there’s not much you can do when you’re injured and Steve Rogers picks you up and places you in one. Outside, Coulson is there to greet them, along with Clint who looks way too thrilled to be behind the wheel of one of Tony’s cars.

Once Steve has gotten Tony loaded safely into the car, Tony glares at Clint. “Who exactly gave you permission to drive one of my babies?”

Clint looks at him eyebrows raised. “Oh, I’m sorry, didn’t you hear? New rule, if someone on the team makes a dick move and almost gets himself killed, he gives up all rights to complain.”

Tony goes to respond, but Coulson beats him to it. “Children, perhaps we could leave the fighting till we get home?”

Tony wants to respond to _that_ too, but then Steve is in the car, pressing up against him, and he leans against him, enjoying the warmth he finds.

 

When they reach the tower, Steve helps him from the car, and they take a detour through the lab so that Tony can check on things.

The bots are pleased to see him, and the suit- oh god, the suit.  He’s had the suit damaged before of course, but that doesn’t make it any less painful to see it all bent and broken. He’ll have a lot of work to do on it, if he doesn’t have to just start from scratch. If it’s hard for him to look at, it seems harder for Steve who goes pale when he sees it. Tony takes his hand and squeezes gently and Steve gives him a small smile and kisses his forehead gently before leading him out of the workshop to the main living room. Everyone is already there.

 

Surprisingly, Darcy is the first one up to hug him, berating him for being an idiot. She’s not the only one to do it. The sentiment is thoroughly backed up by Jane and Betty, who also hug him – it’s pretty nice, the most hugs he thinks he’s ever gotten in one go- then Thor runs to him, picking him up with a big grin.

“Thor, careful of his ribs!” Steve yelps, trying to pull the god away, but Tony just grins despite the pain, hugging Thor back just as enthusiastically.

When he gets put down, Natasha is at his side, still being a goddamn ninja, and tells him that if he ever, “pulls something like this again, I will end you Tony.” He thinks this means maybe she likes him or something, and when he says this, she smirks. “In your dreams.” But Tony can see the affectionate glint in her eye that gives her away. “I was just sick of having to hand Clint tissues as he moped about missing you.”

Clint tackles her, yelling, “I was not, Nat, shut up!” and they start a wrestling match on the ground that everyone wisely takes a step back from.

Tony looks over at the person in the living room who has not approached him. Bruce is very decidedly not looking at him. The others move away to give them some space, talking about making a dinner to celebrate Tony’s not-death, and he goes to sit beside Bruce.

“Bruce…” he offers, not really sure what to say.

“You’re a jerk,” Bruce retorts, still not looking at him.

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“I had to dig you out from under a pile of ruins, and then pry your unconscious body out of your broken armour.”

“I know,” Tony repeats softly.

“And why didn’t you tell me you were upset about Bucky being here?” he says quietly, finally turning to look at him. Tony feels embarrassed. He looks around the room to see Barnes at the table, raising an eyebrow and shrugging a shoulder in a ‘what did you expect me to do’ kind of manner. Tony glares at him, but Barnes just smirks.

He looks back at Bruce, who is staring at him expectantly. “It was stupid.”

“It’s not stupid if it bothers you,” Bruce tells him sagely. “You need to let us know so we can help. We just kind of assumed you were busy with a project. You know how you get. If we’d have known you were feeling left out, we could have done something about it.”

Tony nods, because he knows they would, and really he should’ve known better. Then Bruce smiles. “Besides, you know you’re still my favourite. Well, except for Betty, but you understand that, right?”

Tony laughs, feeling lighter. “Hoes before bros? Yeah, I get that, I mean I’ve got a Steve so-” He’s cut off by a choking noise from the kitchen, and he and Bruce turn to see a blushing Steve, clearly having heard everything with that super hearing of his. He can’t tell if Steve’s offended at Tony using the word ‘hoe’ to begin with, or the fact that Tony just called him one. Bruce snorts and then starts laughing uncontrollably, and Tony joins him, loving that Bruce is finally relaxed enough to do this with the team. He can hear Natasha asking Steve what’s wrong, with that tone that says she already knows but likes to watch Steve stammer and blush. And Barnes is slinging an arm around Steve’s shoulders and joining the teasing. It doesn’t make him twitch to see Barnes do that anymore, not since Steve affirmed that Tony has nothing to worry about on that front. And the team’s reactions to him not being crushed by a building have Tony convinced he probably doesn’t need to worry on that front, either.

Maybe, he could even like Barnes. Eventually. He’s starting to think his worry about losing Steve _may_ have made Barnes seem like more of a jerk than he really is. And Barnes even admitted he was essentially testing Tony this whole time (which is not cool, because if anyone is going to perform social experiments in this tower it will be the guy with _his name on the building,_ thank you very much). The short of it is, Barnes and he understand each other a little better now and Tony thinks that they might be able to be something resembling friends, one day.

Maybe.

To be fair it’s mostly that it’s really hard to continue hating someone who gives you their _blessing_ to date the most important person in their life. Barnes thinks Tony’s actually good enough for Steve, the best man Tony’s ever known.

Tony sits with Bruce for a while, until Betty comes over to tell them to come eat and they join the others at the table. It feels good to be with everyone again and Tony is deliriously happy (he suspects the painkillers might have something to do with it, but he can’t be sure). He tucks into the food he’s handed with gusto. He doesn’t even put up much protest when Steve refuses to let him have a scotch (“ _Not_ while you’re taking pills, Tony.”) with his dinner. They manage to make it through half of dinner without incident before Clint takes a drink from Darcy’s glass by accident, and Darcy makes grossed out noises until Clint rolls his eyes.

“Don’t be so uptight about it,” Clint says. “I mean we are a family after all. Isn’t that right Tony?” He says it jokingly, but kind, not smirking or anything.

Tony still freezes. His face flushes and he’s embarrassed, because he must have said it in front of Barnes, though he doesn’t remember, and he feels like an idiot. And everyone probably thinks it’s pathetic that Tony even thinks that and he wants to bolt, because it’s emotional and embarrassing and old habits die hard-

But then Steve is coming out of the kitchen, putting an arm around Tony’s shoulder, and taking a seat on the bench beside him.

“It’s ok,” he says. His smile is warm, and Tony tries to calm his body down from fight-or-flight. “We care about you too, you know.”

Then Darcy is saying, “I think it’s sweet, at least Tony is man enough to admit he loves us. Not like you Clint.”

And then Clint is yelling, again, and Coulson is rolling his eyes, but smiling warmly at Tony. Bruce nudges him with his shoulder and Barnes has the audacity to wink at him and grin, and Tony’s not sure what’s happening. Then Steve is leaning over to kiss him lightly. “It’s their way of saying you’re their family, too.”

Tony looks around the table to see the others smiling at him.

He lets the panic subside, feeling the happy glow spread through his body, because apparently it’s not just him and that is greatness.

He rallies himself. “Just because you all think I’m a sap, doesn’t mean I am one,” Tony tells them, trying to sound firm, but he has a feeling that the smile he can’t seem to keep off his face may be undermining his stern tone. “I am Tony Stark and you should all consider yourselves lucky that I am generous enough to let you all live here, family or not.”

Natasha snorts. “Whatever you say, Tony.” Then it seems the moment is over, everyone going back to their normal conversations and table routine. But Tony knows it’s for his benefit, giving him time to deal, and he loves them for it.

 

Steve finds Tony later, standing out on one of the balconies and looking out at the city. Steve wraps his arms around him, pulling him close, and Tony goes without any resistance at all.

“You were right, about what you said before,” Steve says to him quietly. “We are lucky. Did I ever thank you for what you did, bringing us all together here?”

Tony chuckles. “Yeah, you did. You were all ridiculously polite about it, remember?”

“Well, it bears repeating. I got back everything I was missing, and it was all thanks to you.”

Tony feels embarrassed; he always does when Steve tells him these sorts of things.

So like every other time, he just goes for the most honest answer.

“I love you.”

And Steve nuzzles his jaw, whispering, “Love you, too,” and Tony thinks that this right here, and everyone inside, is exactly what he’s always needed.

 

**The End.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I want to thank everybody who left feedback via either comments or kudos on the previous two chapters. They gave me all kinds of warm fuzzies :D
> 
> The BIGGEST thank you goes to Teyke, for being my beta for this story, and who was very very patient with me :)  
> So: THANKS, you're awesome!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Cover for "Coffee into Theorems by BladeoftheNebula"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6406492) by [PeggyStarkk (LupusUlulans)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LupusUlulans/pseuds/PeggyStarkk)




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